Tufton Ranked Best Minister, Chang, The Worst
Based on an RJRGLEANER-commissioned Don Anderson poll, it has been unveiled that the Minister of Health and Wellness Dr. Cristopher Tufton has been ranked as the best-performing minister of the cabinet while Dr. Horace Chang, Minister of National Security, in stark contrast, has been ranked the worst.
One thousand one hundred and thirteen Jamaicans participated in the poll and 28 percent of them agreed that Tufton was the best performing minister this year. However, this represents a decline of five percent in his performance rating when compared to last year.
On the opposite side of the poll, Chang was rated as the worst-performing minister for the year 2022, with 15 percent of the participants agreeing on this point. This shows an increase of more than double the amount of those who voted in kind when a similar poll was conducted in 2021. The margin for errors is +3 or -3.
The murder rate seems to be a noose tightening around the necks of Nation Security Ministers even though it has been shown that most major crimes have decreased over the past two years.
RJR conducted a poll from July 16-25 (the same period as this survey) which revealed that almost half of the Jamaican population (46 percent) view the inability to curb crime as ‘the biggest failure of the independence era.’ Up to the first day of September this year, some 1018 individuals have been murdered and there has been a 5.8 percent year-on-year escalation.
Audrey Hinchcliffe, CEO of Manpower and Maintenance Services, in a Gleaner interview on Monday, stated that because Jamaicans do not feel that the crime in the country is being controlled, whoever the minister may be, “anybody would’ve come under pressure with that ministry. The minister who is holding the position is relative to the situation and how it is being managed.”
An approximation of 22 percent of respondents were unsure who should be named ‘Best Minister’, and Hinchcliffe (a Gleaner columnist) agrees that Tufton should be in first place. She voiced, “he steered the country through COVID-19 the best he could,” given that it was an entirely new situation.
Jamaica has endured at least five waves of the disease since its introduction in March 2020, its more severe fatality predicament was recorded in the Summer of 2021. Although various healthcare facilities were faced with overpacked wards and oxygen supply shortages, The COVID mortality rate of the nation was considerably lower than that of wealthier countries, namely, Canada (1.1%), Mexico (4.7%), and the United States (1.1%).
Dr. Nigel Clarke, Finance Minister, ranked second behind Tufton with an eight percent rating in the polls for best-performing minister. Edmund Bartlett, Tourism Minister, and Desmond Mckenzie, Local Government Minister, tied in third place with seven percent. Olivia Grange (Minister of Sports, Youth, and Culture) garnered six percent of the votes while Fayval Williams (Minister of Education), Audley Shaw (Minister of Transport & Mining), and Daryl Vaz (Minister of Science, Energy, and Technology) tied with three percent each.
National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck, Labour Minister Karl Samuda, and Prime Minister Andrew Holness all came in with two percent of the votes. Twenty-two percent were unable to decide.
The standing for the worst-ranked ministers is as follows, Horace Chang (15%), Daryl Vaz (7%), Audley Shaw (6%), Fayval Williams, Desmond Mckenzie, and Delroy Chuck with five percent each, Prime Minister Andrew Holness (4%) and Nigel Clarke, Christopher Tufton, Edmund Bartlett, Aubyn Hill, Karl Samuda and Olivia Grange with two percent each. 37 percent of respondents did not know who to vote for as the worst-performing minister.
An independent poll was conducted for the Prime Minister of Jamaica, with 38 percent of voters ranking his performance as good/very good, 35 percent as average, and 27 percent as poor/very poor.
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